


How the fungi shaped the Falmer - An analysis of the fungi in Blackreach and its effect on the Falmer

by Kaalveniiz



Category: Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Genre: Gen, academic papers in the game, why so serious
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-23
Updated: 2020-10-23
Packaged: 2021-03-09 02:21:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,776
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27156548
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kaalveniiz/pseuds/Kaalveniiz
Summary: This is an almost serious academic paper in the TES 5 World - written by the new archmage A.Galerion, a deep study to the fungi in blackreach and how it makes the elegant snow elves the monster nowadays.
Kudos: 7





	How the fungi shaped the Falmer - An analysis of the fungi in Blackreach and its effect on the Falmer

**Author's Note:**

> Though the data are all forged (well that is strictly forbidden in reality ), the statistical analysis are exactly the same to the method we use for the formal study, such as p value and two sided t-test. Whatever you may use it or not, it is always good to learn a practical thing.

**How the fungi shaped the Falmer - A study of the fungi in Blackreach and its effect on the Falmer**

**Author : Alina Galerion**

**Summary:**

The Falmer bears several irreversible morphological changes in all the time the Dwemer absents, yet it is still not clear why such horrible changes took place.The team of Winterhold College aimed to discuss the speciality of the fungi,Fly Amanita, Blisterwort, Namira's rot, and bleeding crown in Blackreach and its effect to the Falmer.  
We did a controlled experiment with the skyrim local skeever, Given the poisonous fungi as the only food resource, we record and calculate the lifetime, birthrate and other data of each group, and compare with wild skeever .   
The experiment group shows strong reduced birthrate (average 2 offspring each time ) compared to the control group(average 5 offspring each time) , and the expected lifetime is significantly shorter, which is 270 day compared to the 430 day. There is also a confirmation of physiologic mutation in the skeleton of the experiment group's offspring, including scoliosis , softening as well as other abnormal changes.

Interpretation : the malnourishment and the poison within the fungi are the main course of the morphological changes of the Falmer. Though it has less effect on the adult individual, for late generation it is much more effective due to the accumulation of the poison. We strongly advice the adventurer to be careful with any potion brewed with those fungi, in the other hand the children and the pregnant women should avoid to touch any potion with it. 

**Introduction :**

"Falmer", which in Ayleidoon means "snow elves", are sinister creature hide themselves in Dwemer ruins and blackreach. They are already far away from their elven ancestor. Thus, we refer the beast-like creatures "Falmer", and the Elf before changing "Snow elf" in this article.  
The fungi are directly taken from blackreach, and we cultured them in college botanic garden. The fungi we used this time could be seen the same as their relative in skyrim wild , as they have the same alchemical effect. The four type of Fungi are Fly Amanita ( _Amanita muscaria)_ , Blisterwort _(lurid bolete) , Namira's rot ( lacrymabunda Namiraa ),_ and bleeding crown ( _Parasola sanguria )._   
The Falmer are bound to eat the fungi : the stone table in Calcemo's tower shows that the Dwemer ordered the snow elves with intentions to blind them. The most possibly reason is to enslave them in order to avoid the rebellion. As there is nothing else to eat in blackreach and Dwemer city after the Dwemer disappeared, this order is still followed by the Falmer after a few thousand years. Thus, we can say the only food for the Falmer are those Fungi.

 **Methods** :

The study include 60 Solitude pet-skeever( _Rattus Solitudata_ ) , all the offspring of same pair. The 6 month old skeevers , marked as Generation 0 (30 male, 30 female) are randomly distributed into 2 groups, every group includes 15 Male and 15 Female. All the skeevers are kept in the midden, which simulates the blackreach in all aspects like lights and humidity.   
The experiment group are feed with a mixture of chopped fungi, which includes all the four types of fungi with the same weight. Everyday a skeever will be given 50 gram fresh fungi.   
The control group are feed with chopped apple and potato, everyday 50 gram for each skeever.

Every week we will count and weight the skeevers, and if they give birth to their children, we only keep their first born as the material of the next generation. The children are isolated from their parents when they can find food alone. 

**Results** : 

G1 | experiment group | control group  
---|---|---  
average lifetime (day) | 270 (σ = 30) | 430 (σ = 25)  
average birth per time | 2 | 5  
average weight | 180 (σ = 25) | 300 (σ= 33)  
  
Table 1 : the result of the first offspring from the bought adult skeevers. 

The experiment group have a strong reduced lifetime, which is only 270 day. As a reference, the control group could easily live over a whole year, some individual could even live up to 500 days, almost two times as the experiment group. (p < 0.05)   
The female individual of experiment group give birth to only 2 children each time in average, and in the situation there is a big percentage of them only have one or none children, and the other have three , but none of them have four or more. In the contrast, the control group overbreed them easily by having 5 children in average, none of them fail to born a child.   
The average weight of Generation 1 (G1) are significantly lower than the control group. As the G0 are slightly slimmer than control group, the p value is still 0.85 , which means the difference is not significant at all in the stochastic. However, in the G1 group, the weight is already much lower than the normal situation. The skeever are not smaller, but they are all "a bag of bones", no fat at all, and that brings to the severe fur shredding , giving them an even lower weight. 

Table 2 : 

| skull | spine(tail included) | fur shredding | throat conformation | eyes  
---|---|---|---|---|---  
G0 | no | no | slight | no | blind after 8 weeks  
G1 | only teeth | no | yes | no | blind since born  
but the organ are okay  
G2 | yes | light cursive | yes | yes | slightly shrived  
G3 | yes | 5 percent healthy,  
5 percent scoliosis | no more fur | yes | shrived  
G4 | yes | no healthy, 15 percent scoliosis | no more fur | yes | heavily shrived  
G5 | yes | 20 percent scoliosis | no more fur | yes | almost fully shrived  
  
explanation : G0 means the first generation, bought as adult from solitude, and G1 is the direct children of G0, G2 is the direct children of G1, etc.

  
Skull : This column tells if the skull has a morphologic change . In G1 there is already sharper teeth , which means to eat the thick fungi fiber. In G2 and the generation afterwards, the skull has a severe conformation which includes : smaller brain, smaller eyesocket, sharper and longer teeth. In G5 the skull is already like the Falmer we could see today. 

  
Spine : This column tells if the spine and tail has a morphologic change. In G0 and G1 , the length and strength of the spine has no difference comparing to the control group, but from G2 there is a hint of light cursive spine due to the lack of calcium. In G3 we found the most of skeever in experiment group can not stretch their spine to the full length, and 3 of them (15 percent) has a symptom called scoliosis, which means the spine is bend to the side and stay wrapped. In G4 there is no more normal spine, in G5 there is already 6 of them (20 percent) bearing heavily wrapped spines and tails. 

  
Fur Shredding : This column tells if the skeever lost many hairs. The G0 are suffered from malnourishment, and the G1 and G2 two generations are shredding their fur in the normal season, but they grew no more new hair, still that could be explained as the stress and malnourishment. After G3, the skeever will only grow fur once after they are borned, and after shredding this hair, they are naked just like the mole underground. 

  
Throat conformation : As the G0 and G1 having the usual skeever sound, the G2 and after generation could only screech loud and sharp, losing their community possibility. The anatomy experiment have also confirmed this point, as their vocal cord are fixed in a firm angle, they could only have this one sound.   
  


eyes : This column tells if the skeever has anatomical functional eyes. To test this, one should cast a mage light just before their eyes. If they could see a thing, they will try to escape as the skeevers are more safe in the dark place. The G0 are fully blind after accepting the fungi for eight weeks, but their eye has a usual anatomical structure. The G1 are blind as young as they can open their eyes , but the anatomical structure shows no big difference. However, since G2 the eyes begin to shrive, it means : a) loss of important part to feel the light, b) the whole eyes are getting smaller , c) the membranes over the eyes, which will recede normally after 1 Week after their birth, stays for the whole life. The skeever in G5 have only eyes 20 percent as big as G5 in control groups.

There is originally a test for G6, which is born from G5 after the experiment group are feed with potatoes and a few meat, however there is no any improvement in their body(all the data are exactly same with G5) . They have already lost the sense of taste, eat whatever they could send into their mouth, but the poison is already to deep. 

**Discussion:**

It is still not clear which fungi is the main course of the morphological change , however this question is not easily to answer. The Falmer consumes all four types of fungi, and it is also possible the combination of the four materials causes much more troubles. Further study is welcomed in this way.  
The control groups has in G5 2 blind individuals, which may be caused by the low lightness in midden. However, this shows that living in dark is not the main course of being blind , at least not within 10 generation or even more. The possibility of all the skeever in control group (30/30) are blind due to this problem is 0.0083, which is clearly smaller than 0.005, thus a statistical significant proof.

The skeevers are greatly different from men and mer, but the light bodyweight and fast breeding speed could simulate the poison stockpiling in Falmer. Within 5 Generation the skeevers have new forms, and it is only worse for the monsters in the blackreach having a much longer life, much longer time.

The Test with G6 shows there is no way to bring the Falmer back to their elven form, at least no normal way.

It is strongly advised by us for the adventurer to avoid using the positive potion brewed with any type of the for fungi (Fly Amanita, Blisterwort _, Namira's rot ,_ and bleeding crown). One portion may be not so bad, but when the poison stockpile in your body, it would bring irreversible lost. In the same time, do not panic when you are hurt with a poison brewed with them, because the amount of the poison is not enough . However, the poison could be passed down to the children , and it is especially effective to the children, we strongly advise the children and pregnant women to stay away from this dangerous poison. 

**Author's Note:**

> Peer Review :  
> Tolfdir : a good article about the fungi we used for potion. We should be more careful in the next time.
> 
> Drevis : That reminds me of the Kwama I had a few years ago. Cute, but not as cute as Kwama.
> 
> Colette : Now we at least knows there is no way to deal with this poison. You proved us all the fool. 
> 
> Phinis : Be careful, we have lost quite a bunch of people in midden. 
> 
> Sergius : Remember to charge the petty soul stone for me !
> 
> Faralda : (to her class ) Our test today is to fireball the Falmer skeever! 
> 
> J'zargo : J'zargo don't like the skeever. J'zargo thinks they are too loud.
> 
> Onmund : May I take a skeever from the control group as pet ? Please~~~~~?
> 
> Brelina : (Feeds the skeevers and says nothing ) 
> 
> Urag : Just keep the skeever in the midden, never let then be in the library , or you will have troubles.


End file.
